328 MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF BISHOP MOORE. prophets, do they live forever?" But we may be cheered by the persuasion that their spirit will animate their successors. As our venerable Fathers are removed, one after another, we are comforted by the assured hope that they have left behind them, in our Episcopate, sons who will prove themselves worthy of such sires. Men who will keep the banner of the cross ever waving in front of the host. Who, first in every post of duty and of danger, will boldly follow the Captain of our Salvation, and encourage his soldiers to press onward from conquering to conquer, till he shall appear again on earth, to claim his rightful inheritance, and sway the sceptre of peace and holiness over a ransomed and regenerated world. SERMON I. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters; he restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley and shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." -23d Psalm, 1st, 2nd, 3d, and 4th verses. THE more that we study the sacred volume of inspiration, the more do we become convinced of the superintending goodness of God, and of that peculiar affection he has expressed for the intelligent production of his hand. Experience assures us, that human life abounds with difficulties; that we are the heirs of sorrow and of pain; and that "man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upwards." To calm that sea of distress in which we are involved, Revelation exhibits to our view the most encouraging prospect beyond the grave. It directs the attention of the Christian to a city of refuge-to a haven infested with no storms-to a seat of happiness, in which sorrow and sighing find no admission-where every tear will be wiped from the mourner's eye; and joys the most sublimated and refined be our portion forever. Though heaven, and the heaven of heavens, cannot contain the great Omnipotent, still we find in his word that he dwells in a sincere and contrite heart; and manifests himself to his followers, as a father and a friend-"For to this man will I look, says the Almighty; to him who is of an humble and contrite spirit, and who trembleth at my word.' That comfortable manifestation of the Divine goodness of which I am speaking, cannot be experienced by us until we make a surrender of ourselves to the Almighty, and follow Jesus in the way-for the same unerring word which proclaims pardon and peace to the penitent, contains the most solemn declarations of the divine disapprobation to the incorrigible offender. The moment, however, that, in obedience to the command of God, we repent of our sins, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and make his precepts the rule of our life, that moment we obtain a claim to the promise of divine mercy. The right of the sincere Christian to the support and protection of Heaven, is as legitimate as the claim of a dutiful child to the affection of an indulgent parent. Indeed, the confidence of the believer is founded upon a surer basis; parents may forget their children--" a mother may forget her sucking child, yet will I never," saith the eternal God to the Christian, I will "never forget thee." It is not trouble which need to excite in the mind of a sincere believer the least disquietude. It is not distress which should awaken in his bosom a suspicion of divine goodness. They are evidences of that regard which the Almighty exercises over him-" for the Lord chasteneth whom he loveth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Death itself, that king of terrors to the presumptuous sinner, need not intimidate the humble follower of Christ. He is divested of his sting by the triumphant Redeemer; and comes not to alarm, but to animate the Christian. He brings the faithful a release from sorrow and pain; he breaks the tie which attaches him to the present life, and sets the soul, which is panting after God, at perfect liberty. He emancipates the Christian from the thraldom of every affliction; his spirit, disencumbered from the flesh, and rising in another hemisphere, flames in the forehead of a more resplendent sky. That this is the truth, and that such are the high privileges of the believer, is fully declared in the subject before us. The Psalmist did not draw his conclusion from premises insufficient to support the fabric |